Hocken Collections

Hocken Collections (Māori: Uare Taoka o Hākena, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery in Dunedin, New Zealand. Administered by the University of Otago, it holds national significance as one of the country's most important historical research facilities. The Collections specialise in materials relating to New Zealand and Pacific history, with particular emphasis on the Otago and Southland regions, and are open to the general public.

The institution owes its existence to the philanthropy of Dr. Thomas Hocken (1836-1910), an avid collector who first announced his intention to donate his private library to the New Zealand public in 1897. A deed of gift was signed on 3 September 1907, though the collection only became generally accessible in 1910 within a purpose-built wing of the Otago Museum. Hocken was too ill to attend the official opening on 23 March 1910, which coincided with the 62nd anniversary of Dunedin's founding, and he died two months later. The library remained entirely within the Otago Museum until 1965, after which its pictures and growing holdings were dispersed across various University of Otago campus sites, with the pictures collection housed at the Central Library. In 1980 the collections were reunited under one roof in the newly constructed Hocken Building, designed by architect E.J. McCoy and later renamed the Richardson Building. This proved insufficient, and additional accommodation was secured on Leith Street before a further consolidation in 1998. The name was changed to Hocken Collections in 2005.

Hocken Collections holds the largest assembly of manuscripts, maps, and early photographs relating to the history of the Otago Region. Its national collections include the letters and journals of Samuel Marsden and New Zealand records of the Church Missionary Society. The archive preserves the personal and public papers of significant Otago figures, including writers James K. Baxter and R. A. K. Mason, as well as political papers of community leaders. The photographic holdings feature a substantial body of work by the Burton Brothers studio. The music collections encompass extensive New Zealand recordings and sheet music, notably including material related to Dunedin's rock-music scene. The art collection is substantial, and the library maintains membership in the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau.

Multiple Hocken Collections holdings have been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register for their national significance. These include: the Charles Brasch Literary and Personal Papers (2013); Dr Hocken's Church Missionary Society Records (2014); the Pickerill Papers on Plastic Surgery (2015); the Lance Richdale Papers (2016); the Salmond Anderson Architects Records (2017); the Herries Beattie Papers, 1848-1972 (2018); the Dr Muriel Bell Papers (2019); the Colin and Anne McCahon Papers (2020); and the Janet Frame literary and personal papers (2024).

Since 1998, Hocken Collections has been housed in the former Otago Co-operative Dairy Company factory on Anzac Avenue, east of the main University of Otago campus. The building dates from 1951 and is executed in the Art Deco style. This relocation represented the third major consolidation of the collections, following the original 1910 wing of the Otago Museum and the 1980 Hocken Building (now Richardson Building) designed by Ted McCoy.

Hocken Collections is located on St Andrew Street in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is owned by the University of Otago and remains open to the general public. The upper floor of the library contains a gallery regularly used for exhibitions drawn from the library's own collection and from visiting and resident University of Otago artists. The institution's online catalogue, Hākena, provides remote access to its holdings.